Bellator News - Page 64

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Bjorn Rebney wasn't happy. Far from it.
Just a few feet away from him, his featherweight title was changing hands. He wasn't upset he had a new titleholder to promote, but he was far from happy with how his champ was taken out – taking what was fairly universally agreed to be far more punishment than was necessary.
But with Bellator 60 and Joe Warren's brutal knockout loss to Pat Curran in the rearview mirror, Rebney said Warren is ready to get back to work.
Warren (7-3 MMA, 5-2 BFC) held his own against Curran (17-4 MMA, 7-1 BFC) for two rounds in the main event of Bellator 60 in Hammond, Ind., not far from Curran's stomping grounds north of Chicago. In fact, Curran's cousin, UFC vet Jeff Curran, told the challenger before the third round that had had lost the first two frames.
But in the third, Curran turned up the heat, and with Warren against the fence, Curran landed blow after blow to Warren's head – with the cage appearing to help keep him upright when he surely was out on his feet. With one final uppercut, and with Curran looking to referee Jeff Malott, seemingly begging him to stop it, Warren finally slumped to the canvas.
"It's the only time I can remember sitting cageside where I actually threw my headset off and started screaming," Rebney recently told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). "It was hard to watch. There are moments in time where you see athletes freeze, and there we saw a referee freeze. For some reason, he was not reacting to it. I don't know if it was the lights or the cameras or what it was, but it was a very poor job. It should've been stopped five, six seconds or more before it was stopped."
Perhaps it was Warren's sheer determination that helped keep him standing so long while absorbing Curran's punishment. He was undersized at featherweight, fighting above his natural 135-pound class the way he did in DREAM – yet he became the promotion's 145-pound champion.

It will be one of the most unique talent-share deals in sports when it finally gets under way, but Bjorn Rebney already is starting to geek out about it.
The Bellator CEO will have to wait until the new year to utilize Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal in his cage. But later this fall, he'll get to watch his new star build a new fanbase with the pro wrestling audience.
Lawal (8-1 MMA, 0-0 BFC) is expected to make his TNA Impact Wrestling debut next month before returning to MMA in January – when he'll begin moving back and forth between the two.
And though some of the fine print still is being worked out, Rebney believes Bellator and TNA President Dixie Carter nailed it when they signed Lawal to a deal in May that will allow "King Mo" to have his feet in both worlds. TNA's "Impact" airs on Spike TV, the same cable network Bellator moves to in January.

It was the worst kind of training injury, at just about the worst possible time.
Less than two weeks before he was to defend his Bellator featherweight title for the first time, champion Pat Curran (17-4 MMA, 7-1 BFC) suffered a "freak accident" while sparring. And just like that, his title fight against Patricio "Pitbull" Freire (17-1 MMA, 5-1 BFC).
The broken orbital bone will keep Curran out of action for the rest of the calendar year, but he hopes the first part of 2013 sees his return.

Bellator Fighting Championship in January makes the big move from MTV2 to Spike TV.
Given that Spike has a much larger potential audience, is a more natural home for MMA than a music station and is easier to find on cable and satellite systems, it's easy to understand Bellator's excitement.
But that doesn't mean the upcoming Season 7 on MTV2 is a throwaway, a season with a case of senioritis just waiting to graduate to Spike.

Having been branded as “human cock fighting” by former Whitehouse hopeful John McCain, mixed martial arts is set to join mainstream sports by having its very own world cup.
The competition will happen in 2017 and will fittingly take place at the home of the gladiators in Rome.
“Considering the history of Rome, and the Coliseum, it is the perfect environment for the first mixed martial arts world cup. It gives marquee values and it is the right tribute to history,” said World Cup Mixed Martial Arts (WCMMA) Executive Director, Edward Catucci...
A watered down version of mma?
What do you guys think?

As expected Bellator is expanding from four tournaments per season to six beginning in 2013.
According to Bellator Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney, it's all part of the organization's goal to have each of its titles defended three times per year.
In the past 12 months, Bellator's eight titles have been defended just six times total. But with the move from MTV2 to the bigger Spike TV in 2013, that should change.

It's been a rapid ascent to the top for Michael Chandler, who had barely been training in mixed martial arts for two years when he defeated Eddie Alvarez to capture the Bellator lightweight championship. It was a rise he credits mostly to his time at Xtreme Couture, the Las Vegas-based camp that has spawned many stars. But after nearly three years spent in the gambling capital of the world, Chandler has taken a risk of his own. It's rare for a champion to leave a camp; it's rarer still for someone unbeaten to move on, but it's a change he's decided to make.
Chandler has recently taken his perfect record to San Diego, where he has begun training with Alliance MMA, the home of UFC bantamweight champ Dominick Cruz, as well as notables including Phil Davis, Alexander Gustafsson and Brandon Vera.
The move came about two months ago, and while Chandler told MMA Fighting that it was a difficult decision to make, it's so far proven to be the right one.

Tyson Nam's stunning knockout of Bellator champ Eduardo Dantas has drawn interest from major promotions, according to his trainer.
But that interest could drag Nam into a legal fight – with Bellator Fighting Championships.

TUNICA, Miss. – It's possible, but for now, it's anything but definite.
With Bellator featherweight champion Pat Curran (17-4 MMA, 7-1 BFC) likely out of action until early 2013, the organization has given some consideration to an interim title fight between tournament winners Daniel Straus (20-4 MMA, 6-1 BFC) and Patricio "Pitbull" Freire (17-1 MMA, 5-1 BFC).
Ultimately, Bellator Chair and CEO Bjorn Rebney said it'll depend on the champ's recovery timetable.
Curran, a top-five featherweight, and Straus and Freire (who both rank among the division's top 15) have made Bellator's 145-pound class one of its most competitive. However, Curran, who won the title in thrilling fashion from Joe Warren in March, recently pulled out of a Bellator 73 title fight with Freire due to a broken orbital bone.

Attila Vegh needed less than half a minute to dispatch Travis Wiuff in the Bellator Fighting Championships Summer Series light heavyweight tournament final at Bellator 73 on Friday at Harrah’s Tunica Casino in Tunica Resorts, Miss. It was over 25 seconds after it began.
Vegh (28-4-2, 4-0 Bellator) clubbed Wiuff with an overhand right and dropped the hulking Minnesotan where he stood. The Slovakian pounced, battered Wiuff with right hands and forced the stoppage. Vegh, a winner in eight consecutive bouts, will next face promotional champion Christian M'Pumbu for the Bellator light heavyweight crown.
Two-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion Marcos Galvao dismissed Luis Alberto Nogueira with second-round punches and elbows in the Bellator Season 6 bantamweight tournament final. Galvao (13-5-1, 4-2 Bellator) finished it 4:20 into round two, as he secured a title shot against bantamweight champion and Nova Uniao teammate Eduardo Dantas.

Bellator Fighting Championships will return to Canada on Nov. 2 to stage Bellator 79 at Casino Rama in Rama, Ontario.
Promotion officials announced the news Tuesday, also revealing that bantamweight champion Eduardo Dantas, Paul Daley and Ryan Ford will compete at the event. Opponents for the trio were not announced, but all three fighters are expected to appear on the main card, which will be broadcast on MTV2 and Epix.

Fresh off defeating Jefferson George at UCMMA 29 the other night via yet another spectacular knock-out Michael Page revealed he has signed to Bellator Fighting Championships.
During his post-fight interview Page revealed the news to all in attendance at The Troxy in London. It was only a few weeks ago the Super Fight League in India also revealed that they had captured Page’s signature.
Page caught the eye of the MMA world in February after defeating Ben Dishman in spectacular fashion. His performance drew comparisons to that of UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva.

“I can tell you for sure, 100%, I know why there are so many injuries. I personally find UFC fights not as exciting because of all those injuries. There are a lot of background tactics around who’s fighting who; fighters are trying really hard to have a good record in the UFC. If you’ve been offered to fight someone who’s considered a bad match-up, then it’s pretty easy to say ‘hey, I’m injured’.
For example, they offered Brian Stann to fight Hector Lombard. He got injured, and then the next thing you know – he’s fighting Michael Bisping. I can see the logic – for Brian Stann it makes more sense to fight Bisping, he’s simply more popular in the UFC than Hector Lombard. That’s why beating Bisping means more than beating Lombard, who’s a risky opponent.
You can fake every injury. Just tell [UFC doctors] about the symptoms and that’s it.”
In an interview with a ValeTudo.ru, Bellator middleweight stand-out, Alexander Shlemenko tries to blow the whistle on a number of fighters who pull out of scheduled fights due to injury.

A sparring injury has forced Pat Curran (17-4 MMA, 7-1 BFC) to withdraw from his first scheduled title defense against Patricio "Pitbull" Freire (17-1 MMA, 5-1 BFC) at Bellator 73.
A Bellator official on Tuesday told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that it hasn't been decided whether Freire will remain on the card, and at this time, a search for a replacement is underway. ESPN.com first reported the injury withdrawal.
Bellator 73 takes place Aug. 24 at Harrah's Tunica Hotel and Casino in Mississippi. The night's main card airs on MTV2 (and in high-definition on EPIX) following prelims on Spike.com.
Curran's cousin and trainer, Jeff Curran, said the Bellator champ was suffering from a knee problem and had decided to focus on boxing rather than muay Thai in the final week of training camp. During a sparring session at his training home near Chicago with a boxer he'd worked with for the past eight weeks, he "ducked into a punch" and suffered a broken orbital.
Jeff Curran estimated it would be approximately three months before his cousin is ready to fight. He said the knee problem did not require surgery and was the result of the typical "wear and tear" during a fight camp.

The summer of injuries has now touched Bellator Fighting Championships as well.
Bellator featherweight champion Pat Curran has been forced out of his scheduled title fight against Patricio ‘Pitbull’ Freire for next weekend’s Bellator 73 show.
Curran suffered a broken orbital bone while sparring for the fight, and the injury will likely sideline him for several months.
According to the report from ESPN, Bellator will now bump up the bantamweight tournament finals between Marcos Galvao and Luis Nogueira to the main event slot.

Eddie Alvarez's Bellator tenure could be winding down. The former lightweight champion has just one fight left on his deal, and then, free agency looms. But first things first, Alvarez has the final fight to get over with, and now he has a date and opponent.
Alvarez will face Patricky "Pitbull" Freire at a season seven event on October 12, the promotion's CEO Bjorn Rebney announced on Monday.